Table of Contents
Funding Priorities 2
Absolute Priority 2
Competitive Preference Priority 1 9
Competitive Preference Priority 2 9
Competitive Preference Priority 3 10
Competitive Preference Priority 4 12
Selection Criteria 16
A. Quality of the Project Design, 1. Goals, Objectives, and Outcomes 16
2. Addressing Need 23
B. Quality of the Project Services, Non-discrimination 35
1. Likely impact 36
2. Collaboration of appropriate partners 39
C. Adequacy of Resources, 1. Commitment of Partners 48
2. Reasonable costs 52
D. Quality of the Management Plan, 1. Responsibilities and timeline 52
2. Time commitment of key personnel 61
D. Quality of the Project Evaluation, 1. Methods 62
2. Objective performance measures 66
Application Requirements 72
PR/Award # U215J180071 1 Page e21 Funding priorities
The Fund for the City of New York (FCNY) is applying to the U.S. Department of
Education as the lead agency for Zone 126 (a sponsored project of FCNY) to implement the Full-
Service Community Schools strategy in Astoria, Queens, NY.
Absolute Priority: This project, led by a consortium including a non-profit organization (Zone 126) and an LEA (Community School District #30), will serve two Full-
Service Community Schools, PS 171Q-Peter G. Van Alst Elementary School and IS 126Q-
Albert Shanker School for Visual and Performing Arts. This is part of a community-wide strategy, including work in Astoria houses, as well as in additional schools. Both of these schools are eligible for schoolwide Title 1 programs, with 94% and 90% eligible for free and reduced lunch, respectively (2016-2017 School report cards). The majority of children who attend these schools live in Astoria Houses, a New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) development of 3,117 residents. The target population of this proposed project are all of the students at PS 171Q (484) and IS 126Q (700). These children and youth have the following demographic characteristics:
Table 1: Characteristics of the Target Population (2016-2017 NYS
School Report Cards)
Gender
PS 171Q (%) IS 126Q (%)
Male 230 (52%) 351 (56%)
PR/Award # U215J180071 2 Page e22 Female 211 (48%) 275 (44%)
Total Population 441 626
Ethnicity
PS 171Q (%) IS 126Q (%)
American Indian or Alaska 4 (1%) 5 (1%)
Native
Black or African American 120 (27%) 92 (15%)
Hispanic or Latino 204 (46%) 289 (46%)
Asian or Native 90 (20%) 180 (29%) Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander
White 20 (5%) 60 (10%)
PS 171Q (% of IS 126Q (% of Enrollment) Enrollment)
English Language Learners 102 (23%) 76 (12%)
Students With Disabilities 107 (24%) 133 (21%)
Economically Disadvantaged 414 (94%) 562 (90%)
This is part of a community-wide strategy, led by Zone 126, to implement
Neighborhood Community Schools across the Zone. Zone 126 is also the Lead Agency for Long
Island City High School, the school where many IS 126 students go on to attend high school.
PR/Award # U215J180071 3 Page e23 Zone 126 works to coordinate services, build relationships with community residents and leaders, and attract new resources to the community.
This project fulfills all eligibility requirements. Zone 126 (as a project of FCNY) is eligible for this grant as a community-based organization and non-profit, and is applying as a consortium with LEA Community School District 30 and other partners. The project will be supported with matching funds, with $166,000 in non-federal matching funds to be combined with the federal Full-Service Community Schools grant to deliver services, 33% of the requested grant. This project will supplement and expand programming, not supplant it. The Full-
Service Community Schools grant will allow Zone 126 and partners to provide a full-time
Community Schools Director at each school, and to provide several entirely new services to students (Attendance Success Mentoring, Little Flower Yoga, and vision screenings). The remaining funds in the requested grant will be used to expand services offered by partners, as described in more detail below. Zone 126 will not award subgrants to directly carry project activities. Zone 126 will provide direct services through hiring two full-time Community
Schools Directors and one full-time Attendance Success Mentoring Coordinator, and will subcontract with 7 partners to provide activities. Activities provided by these partners will also be supported through non-FSCS funds. Zone 126 and partners will use the first three months of the project period to plan for successful implementation, which will cost $17,500 in grant funds
(3.5% of the total award will support planning). The planning costs include 3 months of the
.35 FTE managing director and three months of evaluation services. Zone 126 and its partners have a long history of collaboration, including defining and working towards common goals as part of a Collective Impact network, including increasing kindergarten readiness, improving 3rd grade reading proficiency, and improving 6th grade math proficiency.
PR/Award # U215J180071 4 Page e24 Zone 126 will use FSCS grant funds to coordinate more than three existing pipeline services (the Parent Child Home Program, City Year Americorps in school services, after school and summer programming, in-school creative writing and drama programming) and will provide three additional pipeline services (Success Mentoring, Little Flower Yoga for elementary school, vision screenings) at two public schools (PS 171Q and IS 126Q). This project will provide an integrated pipeline of services in school and out of school, supporting children from before Kindergarten until their transition to high school. This pipeline of services will include work with families to ensure children are prepared for Kindergarten, social and emotional learning with an emphasis on developing self-awareness and self-regulation, enrichment and support to ensure academic success, and coordination of resources to ensure that children and families are able to meet other needs as they arise, including those related to health.
Parents of young children will receive support to help them get their children ready for kindergarten, participating in the Parent-Child Home Visiting Program, and then NYU
ParentCorps during pre-K. Once children enter school, they will have four years of weekly yoga and mindfulness in their classes to support them in developing critical social and emotional skills to support their success in school and beyond. From 3rd grade to 8th grade, children will receive enrichment programming weekly during school time, including three years of creative writing with Community-Word Project and three years of drama therapy with enACT.
Zone 126 will leverage FSCS funding and matching funds to build the capacity of each school to meet the specific needs of children, including targeted support from Community
Schools staff and other partners. Each school will have a full-time Community School Director who will coordinate activities to best meet the needs of children, and will also connect children and families to outside resources such as health care providers (as described in more detail
PR/Award # U215J180071 5 Page e25 below). The Success Mentoring Coordinator will work with a caseload of 40 students identified as chronically absent, 20 at each school. This mentor will follow the evidence-based Success
Mentoring approach1 to ensure students with a history of chronic absenteeism are empowered to re-engage with school and succeed. City Year Americorps members will work in 12 classrooms to provide support to students who need it, building a team of skilled, professional, and caring individuals who know the students, are able to access resources to help children and their families when needed, and who work as part of a collaborative team to ensure a seamless continuum of services.
Students will have a pipeline of services ensuring their ongoing access to fun, engaging, high quality programming after school and during the summer. Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood
Settlement House will provide after school programming to children from kindergarten to fifth grade. Americorps members will provide out of school time programming for students in grades
3rd-8th, using the evidence-based ABC (Attendance Monitoring and Student Engagement,
Behavioral Support and Developmental Progress, and Course Performance in Math and English) approach. During summer, students in grades 3 through 8 will have the opportunity to attend
Camp Herrlich, a sleep away camp in upstate New York where children and youth are able to develop independence and confidence. In 6th grade, children will be able to attend a performing arts summer camp with Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens.
This pipeline of services, carrying children from early childhood through their transition to high school, and integrating activities that take place during the school day, expanded capacity for individual student support, and out of school enrichment and support, will together address
1 My Brother’s Keeper Success Mentoring follows evidence-based mentoring practices as outlined by the Center for Evidence-based mentoring https://www.mentoring.org/program- resources/the-center-for-evidence-based-mentoring/
PR/Award # U215J180071 6 Page e26 the annual measurable performance objectives and outcomes under section 4625(a)(4)(C) of the ESSA to meet holistic needs of children. These objectives and outcomes (described in detail in section a1 below) will measure progress towards tracking the goals specified in section
4625(a)(4)(C) of the ESEA: that children are prepared for Kindergarten, that they are achieving academically, and that they are safe, healthy, and supported by engaged parents.
The pipeline of services offered by Zone 126 and Partners will provide directly or connect children and families to all of the elements of pipeline services as defined in this funding notice. High-quality child care will be provided through our partner, The Child Center of NY along with the Pre-K program at PS 171Q. High quality school and out-of-school time programs and strategies will be provided by multiple partners, including in school enrichment and academic support along with after school and summer programs. Zone 126 and partners will support the transition to elementary school through NYU ParentCorps, NYU Friends School,
Parent Child Home Program, and Little Flower Yoga. It will support the transition to middle school and high school through bridging events and cooperation between the Community School
Directors as PS 171Q, IS 126Q, and Long Island City High School, creating a seamless Full-
Service Neighborhood Community Schools model from Pre-K through 12th grade. Zone 126 and partners will support family and community engagement and supports, with activities, events, and services offered both at school and at home. The program will coordinate and enhance community-based support for students who have attended school in the area of the pipeline and who are community members, through a community-wide implementation of Community
Schools along with services offered at important community locations (such as Queens Borough
Public Library and Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House). Social, health, nutrition, and mental health services and supports will be both integrated into enrichment activities (such as
PR/Award # U215J180071 7 Page e27 mindfulness through yoga and nutrition through cooking programs) as well as through direct support (offered by Zone 126 Community School staff and Americorps members) and through partner services (such as The Child Center of NY’s Mental Health Clinic). Juvenile crime prevention and rehabilitation programs will also be integrated into enrichment programs, using social and emotional learning and high quality after school to prevent juvenile crime through self-regulation, trauma sensitivity, and providing appealing alternatives to engaging in crime.
Partners building this pipeline and in the referral network also provide services related to juvenile crime and rehabilitation, including services offered by The Child Center of NY, Jacob
A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House, and Queens Borough Public Library.
Implementation of the Full-Service Community Schools model at PS 171Q and IS 126Q will integrate services provided by community-based organizations with services provided by specialized instructional support personnel, especially through the work of the Community
School Director, Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator, and Americorps members. These individuals will provide direct support to students, and will work closely with specialized instructional support personnel in each school. Little Flower Yoga, also, will provide professional development to teachers and other instructional staff in order to ensure school-wide support for mindfulness among children in Pre-K to second grade.
Zone 126 will work with Owen Consulting Inc. (OCI) to conduct an external evaluation, with annual end-of-year evaluations of the community school strategy and impact at each school. The evaluation will assess the project’s progress in meeting the purpose of the FSCS program as described in 4621(2) of the ESSA: To provide support for the planning, implementation, and operation of Full-Service Community Schools that improve the coordination and integration, accessibility, and effectiveness of services for children and
PR/Award # U215J180071 8 Page e28 families, particularly for children attending high-poverty schools, including high-poverty rural schools. The evaluation results will be used to refine and improve activities carried out under the grant and the annual measurable achievement objectives and outcomes set out in section
4625(a)(4)(C) and explained in detail in section a1. The results of the evaluation will be made publicly available through the Zone 126 website and through websites of partners as appropriate, and Zone 126 and partners will use public social media and other relevant channels to provide public notice of the availability of such results.
Competitive Preference Priority 1: This project does not qualify for Competitive
Priority 1.
Competitive Preference Priority 2: This project will be implemented by a Consortium
Comprised of a Broad Representation of Stakeholders, creating a cradle-to-college-to-career pipeline for students in the Zone through the Full-Service Community Schools framework. Zone
126, the organization leading this consortium, was built from the start as a backbone of a consortium to convene a community-wide Promise Neighborhoods planning effort. Zone 126’s role has been to attract resources to a neighborhood often referred to as a “funding desert,” build local community-based organizations’ capacity to support residents and connect schools, as well as families, to the resources that will support students’ needs. Zone 126 combines the understanding of place-based work, with community needs and experience to strategically bring together partners to ensure students are (1) Prepared for Kindergarten; (2) Achieving academically; and (3) Safe, healthy, and supported by engaged parents to implement a Full-
Service Community Schools Program model positioned for success.
The Zone 126 partners included in this application are: Community School District #30
(CSD #30), Camp Wilbur Herrlich, The Child Center of NY (CCNY), City Year New York
PR/Award # U215J180071 9 Page e29 (CYNY), Community-Word Project (CWP), enACT, Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement
House (Riis), Little Flower Yoga (LFY), Long Island City High School (30Q450), New York
City Department of Education Office of Community Schools (NYCDOE OCS), The Parent-
Child Home Program (PCHP), Queens Borough Public Library (QBPL), Salah M. Hassanein
Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens (VBGCQ), Elmezzi Foundation, and Urban Upbound.
This broad-based consortium includes local anchor institutions (Queens Library and Jacob A Riis
Neighborhood Settlement House), national non-profits (Boys and Girls Club and City Year), a social enterprise (Little Flower Yoga), and two schools (PS 171Q and IS 126Q). In addition to the two partner schools in this proposal, the Zone 126 is also the lead agent for community school Long Island City High School, where students from IS 126 are most likely to attend high school. Please see the attached MOU and Letters of Support provided by each partner. These partners have all agreed to collaborate with Zone 126 as a consortium to fully support the students at PS 171Q and IS 126Q. They will provide programming in school and out of school to address targeted needs of students, and will work together to ensure that resources are being used efficiently and where they are most effective. Additionally, the partners will participate in the evaluation of the community school and engage in parent outreach.
Competitive Preference Priority 3: This consortium demonstrates a history of effectiveness both independently and as a group. The most recent (2016-2017) evaluation of
Zone 126 activities, including in PS 171Q and IS 126Q, indicates that participation in Zone 126 programming contributes to improved school attendance and credit accumulation rates.
This was a quasi-experimental study, conducted by Owen Consulting Inc. Using regression analysis, Zone 126 students were found to be present in school on average about 6 more days than non-participants controlling for all other variables. The impacts on attendance at Long
PR/Award # U215J180071 10 Page e30 Island City High School (a Community School), were even more pronounced, with findings indicating that Zone 126 participants attended on average 15 more days than non- participants, controlling for other variables. Zone 126 students earned on average about 2 more credits than non-participants controlling for all other variables. Individual members of the consortium, also, have proven effectiveness in their work. A 2015-2016 evaluation of the
Community-Word Project found increases in literacy, creativity, critical thinking, emotional awareness, and citizenship. The evaluation also found improvements in students’ ability to revise and strengthen their writing2. NYU Friends School and NYU ParentCorps have documented impacts on parenting practices and child behaviors,3 and the Parent Child Home
Program has shown positive impacts on child readiness along with rates of abuse and neglect4.
Additionally, enACT has proven impacts on social and emotional development5. Findings from reliable and valid program participant surveys administered over the previous and current school
2 Please see 2015 final evaluation report for Community-Word Project, available at https://www.dropbox.com/s/rconk6cp0st69ra/EOY Evaluation Report PDF Final.pdf 3 Brotman, L.; Calzada, E.; Huanh, K., ... Petkova, E. (2011). Promoting Effective Parenting Practices and Preventing Child Behavior Problems in School among Ethnically Diverse Families from Underserved, Urban Communities. Child Development, v82 n1, 256-276. Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ927860 4 Allen, L., Sethi, A., & Astuto, J. (2007). An evaluation of graduates of a toddlerhood home visiting program at kindergarden age. NHSA Dialog: A Research-to-Practice Journal for the Early Intervention Field 10(1), 36-57. Available at http://www.parent-child.org/wp- content/uploads/pdfs/key-research/The_Parent- Child_Home_Programs_Effectiveness_with_English_Language_Learners.pdf and Rafoth, M. & Knickelbein, B. (2005). Cohort One Final Report: Assessment Summary for the Parent Child Home Program. An evaluation of the Armstrong Indiana County Intermediate Unit PCHP program, Center for Educational and Program Evaluation located at Indiana University of Pennsylvania available at http://www.parent-child.org/wp-content/uploads//pdfs/key- research/PCHP_and_Reductions_of_Risks_of_Child_Abuse.pdf 5 Horowitz, Robert, Elizabeth Beaubrun, Amy Kleiman, and Dan Chiel (2011) Social and Emotional Development and Theater Skills in ENACT Workshops: Context, Conditions, Process and Outcomes available at http://enact.org/PDFs/ENACT_Ford_Exec_Summary.pdf
PR/Award # U215J180071 11 Page e31 years have indicated that all Zone 126 partner programs have positively impacted students across a range of evidence-based youth development indicators.
Competitive Preference Priority 4: The activities and pedagogical approaches outlined in this application are Supported By Promising Evidence. One of the key activities, NYU
Friends School and NYU ParentCorps, has positive impacts on parenting practices and child behaviors, according to a study that meets What Works Clearinghouse Standards (WWC) with
Reservations6. The related Parent-Child Home Program is an evidence-based practice with proven impacts on child readiness and rates of abuse and neglect7. The proposed program incorporates high quality arts and recreation summer camp, a strategy that has proven impacts on student outcomes, meeting WWC standards without reservations8. The program includes two types of arts integration, working with partners enACT (drama) and Community-Word Project
(creative writing). Arts integration has a growing research base documenting effectiveness, with
6 Brotman, L.; Calzada, E.; Huanh, K., ... Petkova, E. (2011). Promoting Effective Parenting Practices and Preventing Child Behavior Problems in School among Ethnically Diverse Families from Underserved, Urban Communities. Child Development, v82 n1, 256-276. Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ927860 7 Allen, L., Sethi, A., & Astuto, J. (2007). An evaluation of graduates of a toddlerhood home visiting program at kindergarden age. NHSA Dialog: A Research-to-Practice Journal for the Early Intervention Field 10(1), 36-57. Available at http://www.parent-child.org/wp- content/uploads/pdfs/key-research/The_Parent- Child_Home_Programs_Effectiveness_with_English_Language_Learners.pdf and Rafoth, M. & Knickelbein, B. (2005). Cohort One Final Report: Assessment Summary for the Parent Child Home Program. An evaluation of the Armstrong Indiana County Intermediate Unit PCHP program, Center for Educational and Program Evaluation located at Indiana University of Pennsylvania available at http://www.parent-child.org/wp-content/uploads//pdfs/key- research/PCHP_and_Reductions_of_Risks_of_Child_Abuse.pdf 8 Borman, G.; Goetz, M.; Dowling, N. (2009). Halting the Summer Achievement Slide: A Randomized Field Trial of the KindergARTen Summer Camp. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 133-147. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ855770
PR/Award # U215J180071 12 Page e32 proven impacts on student engagement and learning9. Little Flower Yoga will provide yoga and mindfulness programming, which has been found in Random Control Trials to improve emotional health and regulation10. The proposed project will also follow the Success Mentors method, as implemented in the My Brother’s Keeper initiative of the U.S. Department of
Education. This model is an evidence-based and data-driven approach to addressing chronic absenteeism and creating a system for student support11.
About Zone 126
In 2009, the Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Private Foundation embarked on an intensive community assessment initiative named “Project 126” in Astoria/Long Island City where the founder, Thomas Elmezzi grew up. The Board of Directors sought to deepen the foundation’s investments in the area but wanted more information that would help them target resources more effectively. A needs assessment analysis (referred to as Project 126) concentrated on three zip codes, 11101 (NYCHA Queensbridge Houses), 11102 (NYCHA Astoria Houses), 11106
(NYCHA Ravenswood Houses). This area of focus is a concentration of poverty inclusive of
20,000 low-income citizens within these three public housing developments that have the greatest social and economic need in Western Queens, New York. The prime focus of residents in public housing was clear: high quality education for their children. With this in mind, the
9 DeMoss, Karen, and Terry Morris. "How arts integration supports student learning: Students shed light on the connections." Chicago, IL: Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) (2002). https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0f8e/b783b2ed081237b298ba81bbcff8e0f69aac.pdf 10 Noggle, J., PhD; Steiner, N., MD; Minami, T., PhD; Sat Bir S., PhD. (2012). Benefits of Yoga for Psychosocial Well-Being in a US High School Curriculum: A Preliminary Randomized Control Trial. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, v33 n 3, 193-201. http://journals.lww.com/jrnldbp/Abstract/2012/04000/Benefits_of_Yoga_for_Psychosocial_Well _Being_in_a.1.aspx 11 My Brother’s Keeper Success Mentoring follows evidence-based mentoring practices as outlined by the Center for Evidence-based mentoring https://www.mentoring.org/program- resources/the-center-for-evidence-based-mentoring/
PR/Award # U215J180071 13 Page e33 Elmezzi Foundation created Zone 126. Using Collective Impact as a framework, Zone 126’s role has been to attract resources to build local community-based organizations’ capacity and connect schools and families to the resources that will improve conditions for success. Since the successful Promise Neighborhoods Planning grant in 2012, Zone 126 has continued to build a consortium of partnerships that support children/youth and families in the Zone.
The Zone 126 catchment area is a contiguous area bound by the East River on the West,
Broadway on the South, 21st Street on the East, and 27th Avenue on the North. The three large
NYCHA housing developments are located west of 23rd Street. The majority of students who will receive services through the Zone 126 Full-Service Community Schools Grant Initiative reside in NYCHA Astoria Houses.
Children who live in the Zone predominantly attend three public schools: PS 171Q-
Peter G. Van Alst Elementary School, IS 126Q- Albert Shanker School for Visual and
Performing Arts, and Long Island City High School. For the purposes of this application, Zone
126 will focus on the elementary and middle schools, both of which are eligible for schoolwide
Title I programs with 92% and 87% free and reduced lunch, respectively. Figure 1 provides a map of the Zone 126 service area, inclusive of NYCHA Astoria Houses and the three public schools.
PR/Award # U215J180071 14 Page e34
Figure 1: Map of the Proposed Zone 126 Neighborhood Community Schools
Service Area, Astoria, Queens, New York
PR/Award # U215J180071 15 Page e35 Selection Criteria
A. Quality of the Project Design (up to 15 points).
1. The extent to which the goals, objectives, and outcomes to be achieved by the proposed
project are clearly specified and measurable.
The Zone 126 Neighborhood Community Schools will support PS 171Q and IS 126Q as
Full-Service Community Schools, ensuring that students in each school have what they need to enter the classroom ready to learn and to succeed. The goals of this project are to ensure that students are 1) prepared for kindergarten, 2) achieving academically, and 3) safe, healthy, and supported by engaged parents.
Goal 1 (Students are Prepared for Kindergarten): This goal will be addressed through the
Zone 126 partnership with The Child Center of NY (CCNY) through their implementation of the
Parent-Child Home Program, Queens Borough Public Library and NYU ParentCorps. The Child
Center of NY will provide the evidence-based Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) to parents of
15 children who will attend Kindergarten at PS 171Q. NYU ParentCorps, also evidence based, will provide school-based programming to 18 parents (NYU ParentCorps model) and 54 students
(NYU Friends School model) at PS 171Q. Moreover, students in Pre-Kindergarten at PS 171Q will also be supported during the school year through case management and attendance improvement support from Community Schools staff as well as through the Little Flower Yoga and mindfulness program.
To measure progress toward this goal, Zone 126 will work towards the objective that more students enter Kindergarten screened as prepared for Kindergarten, as measured on the annual Pre-Kindergarten screening tool used by PS 171Q. Baseline data will be collected in the first year of the grant, with progress tracked in subsequent years. Currently,
PR/Award # U215J180071 16 Page e36 approximately 23% of children entering kindergarten are screened as prepared for kindergarten.
The targeted outcomes are as follows: In Year 2, at least 30% of students will be assessed as entering prepared for Kindergarten. In Year 3, at least 35% will be assessed as entering prepared for Kindergarten. By Year 4, at least 40% will be assessed as entering prepared for Kindergarten. By Year 5, at least 45% will be assessed as entering prepared for
Kindergarten, meaning an improvement of 22 percentage points overall.
Goal 2 (Students are achieving academically): As Neighborhood Community Schools, PS
171Q and IS 126Q will support the goal that students achieve academically through multiple channels. This includes push-in enrichment programming that will engage students in their own learning, support social-emotional skills critical for academic success, and enhance the classroom experience at each school. This push-in programming, offered during the school day, includes drama therapy offered by enACT (parent engagement & teacher professional development), yoga and mindfulness offered by Little Flower Yoga (along with teacher professional development), creative writing offered by Community-Word Project (CWP), and the Adolescent Dating Abuse Prevention Curriculum, Safe Dates offered by The Child Center of
NY. Twenty-four City Year New York Americorps members will serve in twelve 3rd through 8th grade classrooms, providing attendance improvement services, behavior support, and small group and individual academic support. In addition to push-in programming, the Community
School Director and Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator will provide support to children directly through case management, referrals. The Community School Director will use the New
Visions data portal, provided through partnership with NYC Department of Education, to track attendance in real-time. Partner organizations such as City Year New York and Jacob A. Riis
PR/Award # U215J180071 17 Page e37 Neighborhood Settlement will offer after-school academic programming, inclusive of tutoring and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
Progress towards academic achievement goals be focused on two types of objectives. As precursors to academic achievement, Zone 126 will work towards the objective that students attend school more frequently, resulting in fewer chronically absent students. Second, Zone
126 will work towards the objectives that students improve in their classroom grades and in their performance on standardized tests. The number of students who are chronically absent or at risk for becoming chronically absent will be recorded monthly, in order to allow for time trend comparisons across years. While the attendance rates at each school are above 90%, there are also high rates of chronic absenteeism. Data from 2017-2018 will be used as baseline data, with a chronic absenteeism rate of 31% at PS 171Q and 17% at IS 126Q. The targeted outcomes for this objective are as follows: In Year 1, the rate of chronic absenteeism (when averaged across the school year) will decrease by 2% compared to baseline. It will be 4% below baseline in Year 2, 6% below baseline in Year 3, 8% below baseline in Year 4, and 8% below baseline in Year 5. Classroom grades and test scores will be collected from NYC DOE yearly, and will be compared to the same data from a group of peer schools identified by NYC
DOE. Data from 2017-2018 will be used as baseline. For improvements in classroom grades,
Zone 126 will target the following outcomes: in Year 1, the percentage of students, averaged for all grades, receiving satisfactory level grades in two or more subjects in the 4th quarter will improve at least 5% over baseline. By Year 2, the percentage of students, averaged for all grades, receiving satisfactory level grades in two or more subjects in the 4th quarter will show an improvement of 7% over baseline, and will show a statistically significant difference from the comparison group of schools. In years 3-5, the change in grades will
PR/Award # U215J180071 18 Page e38 show a statistically significant difference from the comparison group of schools, and will show percentage increases over baseline as follows: 9% in Year 3, 11% in Year 4, and
13% in Year 5. Student test scores will be also be analyzed by grade level, and Zone 126 will target the following outcomes: in Year 1, the percentage of students, averaged for all grades, performing as on grade level on at least one of the two primary state assessments (ELA and
Math) will increase 3% over baseline. In years 2 – 5, this increase will show statistically significant differences with comparison schools, with targeted changes of 6% over baseline in Year 2, 9% over baseline in Year 3, 12% over baseline in Year 4, and 15% over baseline in Year 5. These targeted outcomes are in line with the Comprehensive Education Plans for both schools.
Goal 3 (Students are safe, healthy, and supported by engaged parents) The third program goal is that students are safe, healthy, and supported by engaged parents. The goal will be addressed through a pipeline of services that support children, youth, and families as they progress through developmental milestones. Social and emotional learning is critical to safety and health for children and families, and provides a foundation for engaging parents in their child’s education. Parents of young children will be supported by the Parent-Child Home
Program and NYU ParentCorps, which have evidence of positive impacts on kindergarten readiness and reducing child abuse. Little Flower Yoga will work with Zone 126 to transform classrooms for the youngest children into spaces where mindfulness is integrated into daily routines, providing both teacher professional development and weekly yoga and mindfulness classes for children. Older elementary school students and middle school students will receive creative writing and drama therapy in their day school classes, supporting social and emotional learning and mental and behavioral health while also enriching their academic experience. In
PR/Award # U215J180071 19 Page e39 preparation for their transition to high school, 8th graders at IS 126Q will participate in Safe
Dates, an adolescent dating abuse prevention curriculum delivered by The Child Center of NY.
Zone 126 will also address physical, dental, vision, and mental health through new and established partnerships with service providers, including Optical Academy, The Child Center
Mental of NY Health Clinic, Floating Hospital, Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Clinic, and others. Because of the geographic, social, and linguistic isolation of the target population, access to these services is an important pre-cursor to improving health outcomes. Parent engagement is built into every service offered as part of the community school. All partners include parent engagement in their work, such as through celebrations and presentations of student work, parent workshops, community meals, and direct outreach (including, in some cases, home visits). The
Community Schools Director and Attendance Success Mentoring Coordinator will coordinate these efforts to ensure the efficient use of resources and promote synergy among parent engagement efforts led by partners – for example, by including a yoga activity with a community breakfast or showcasing creative writing and student artwork at the same event. Zone 126 will host a monthly Community School Breakfast. Additionally, parents will participate in at least 8 workshops provided by enACT, NYU ParentCorps, Jacob A Riis Neighborhood Settlement
House, Urban Upbound, as well as workshops provided by Zone 126 Neighborhood Community
Schools staff. Workshop topics will include communication skills, helping your child with their homework, and navigating New York City’s educational system. Urban Upbound, a local community-based organization whose mission is to provide residents of public housing neighborhoods the tools and resources needed to achieve economic mobility and self-sufficiency, and to break cycles of poverty are committed to providing Adult Employment Services,
Financial Counseling, and free Tax Preparation for families of the Zone 126 Full-Service
PR/Award # U215J180071 20 Page e40 Neighborhood Community Schools. Through these activities, the FSCS consortium will support building a safe, healthy, and engaged culture for parents and students at the target schools.
Progress towards the goal that students are safe, healthy, and supported by engaged parents will be assessed through progress towards several related objectives. These objectives are: improvements in items related to safety, health, and parent engagement on the NYC school survey; increased access to health services (as measured through referrals to service providers); increased parent participation in Community School events; and improvements in parent satisfaction and engagement as measured on a Zone 126 Parent Survey.
In order to track progress towards specific targeted outcomes related to the objective of improved NYC School Survey results, the external evaluator (OCI) will work with stakeholders during the first three months of the grant to develop an index of items for each aspect of this program goal (safety, health, and parent engagement). Following NYC School Survey items, these indices will use a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being generally more positive. The NYC School survey is completed annually, and 2017-2018 data will be used as baseline data. A group of at least three comparison schools will be created, matching school on size, demographics, and academic performance of students. The specific targeted outcomes for NYC School Survey results are as follows: in Year 1, the overall index score for each sub-index will improve by at least 5% over baseline. In years 2 through 5, the changes in index scores for each sub- index will show a difference of at least 3 percentage points compared to the group of comparison schools, and will improve by 10% in Year 2, 15% in Year 3, 20% in Year 4 and 25% in Year 5.
Progress towards the objective of improved access to health services will be measured through changes in referrals to vision, dental, physical, and mental health providers. Year 1 of
PR/Award # U215J180071 21 Page e41 the program will be used as baseline data (2018-2019). Referrals will be tracked week by week, in order to allow a time trend comparison with past years. The targeted outcomes are as follows: by Year 2 the average number of referrals (covering the entire time trend of the year) will be 2% higher than the time trend average for Year 1. The time trend average will be 4% higher by Year 3, 6% higher by Year 4, and 8% higher by Year 5.
In order to reach the goal that students are supported by engaged parents, Zone 126 will target two objectives: increased parent participation in Community School events; and improvements in parent satisfaction and engagement as measured on a Zone 126 Parent Survey.
Attendance will be taken at each parent workshop or other event, with the first grant year counted as baseline data. The targeted outcomes for this objective are as follows: by Year 2, average parent attendance at events will increase by 5% over baseline. By Year 3, average parent attendance will increase by 10% over baseline. By Year 4, average parent attendance will increase by 15% over baseline. By Year 5, average parent attendance will increase by 20% over baseline. Parent satisfaction and engagement will also be measured through changes in responses on a parent survey developed with stakeholder input during the first three months of the grant. The survey will be conducted once in spring of 2019 and then each year in fall and spring. The 2019 survey results will provide baseline data. Factor analysis will be used to condense survey responses into two indices, one related to satisfaction and one related to engagement. Targeted outcomes related to this objective (parent satisfaction and engagement as indicated in Zone 126 parent survey results will increase) are as follows: the percentage of parents indicating positive or strongly positive responses on at least one of the satisfaction and engagement indices will increase by 5% each year, with an increase of
25% over baseline by Year 5.
PR/Award # U215J180071 22 Page e42 In addition to the above impact goals, Zone 126 will address an implementation goal of increasing the number of children and families receiving services each year. Implementing new program services in January 2019 will provide the following increase in services to children and families: 40 children and families will receive Success Mentoring, 255 children will receive
Little Flower Yoga (new services will be provided to 22% of the student body of the target schools). All children in both schools will also receive vision screenings each year, which is a new service. Each year, approximately half of students participating in Success Mentoring will be new (20 children each year), and one grade level of Little Flower Yoga will be new each year
(54 pre-k children). Through these services alone, 74 new children and families will be served each year, for an increase of 6% of the total student body. New children and families will participate in services by joining existing activities (such as the Jacob A Riis After School program), through working directly with the Community School Director and Americorps members, and participating in other activities and services offered by partners, such as the Child
Center of NY Mental Health Clinic and Queens Library adult education services. Thus, the
FSCS will increase the number of children and families receiving services by at least 74 children and families per year (6%).
2. The extent to which the design of the proposed project is appropriate to, and will
successfully address, the needs of the target population or other identified needs.
The majority of students at PS 171Q and IS 126Q live in New York City Housing
Authority (NYCHA) Astoria Houses, a public housing development with 3,117 residents. In the
Project 126 Needs Assessment Survey, residents reported feelings of anxiety or depression, not
PR/Award # U215J180071 23 Page e43 feeling safe walking through nearby parks and not feeling safe in the evening.12 Despite facing severe safety issues in their community, many residents reported that they do not trust the NYC
Police Department. Astoria Houses is particularly distressed and cut off from mainstream Astoria by a 21-block barrier zone of warehouses, car-repair shops, and dilapidated housing. This leads to physical, institutional, and social isolation. Such factors make it extremely difficult for residents to access basic health care, educational, and recreational resources available in communities on the other side of 21st street, where the barrier ends. Moreover, access to fresh and healthy food is virtually nonexistent: 25% of Astoria Houses residents reported that they have to walk more than 20 minutes – about 2 miles – to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables. (A collaboration between Zone 126 and City Harvest has brought a Mobile Market to Astoria
Houses and Queensbridge Houses; twice a month Astoria Houses families can receive free fresh fruits and vegetables as well as lessons on healthy recipes).
In addition to physical isolation, residents lack resources that people in other neighborhoods take for granted. Respondents to the needs assessment survey cited a lack of job and computer training, and parenting classes were requested by an astounding 92% of respondents.13 The large New American population is particularly isolated: 42% of Astoria
Houses residents reported feeling that New Americans are more vulnerable to crime than citizens, and 33% reported feeling that it is more difficult for residents to make friends.14
12 Thomas & Jeanne Elmezzi Foundation (2011), A Focus on the Future: The Project 126 Report. www.elmezzi.org/wp-content/uploads/project-126-a-focus-on-the-future1.pdf. 13 Thomas & Jeanne Elmezzi Foundation (2011), A Focus on the Future: The Project 126 Report. www.elmezzi.org/wp-content/uploads/project-126-a-focus-on-the-future1.pdf. 14 Ibid
PR/Award # U215J180071 24 Page e44 Residents in Astoria Houses and surrounding NYCHA housing units also suffer from high crime rates, overwhelming environmental stressors, and underperforming schools, as shown in the tables below:
Table 1: Indicators of Need for the Zone 126 Service Area
• Nearly 1 in 4 adults are obese Community Health • 21 % of adults live without medical insurance Indicators15 • New HIV diagnosis (per 100,000) 36.3 rate. (NYC=30.4)
• Total crime risk (e.g. murder, robbery. assault, burglary) in Astoria is 2
Community Safety times the national average
and Crime Indicators16 • Robbery is 3 times the national average
• Assault is 2 times higher than the national average
• 707 families with 1,047 children reported for child abuse (2016)17
Family Stress Indicators • 69% of families do not have access to child care18
• 41% are foreign born with 27% having low English proficiency
• Poverty rate in the catchment area is 25%,19 compared to 15.1% in Poverty and Queens and 15.4% in the State of New York Unemployment • Unemployment rate is 9%7 Indicators • 81% of children are eligible for free and reduced lunch20
15 2015 NYC Community Health Profiles for Queens Community District 1: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/data/2015chp-qn01.pdf 162015 Astoria Crime Rates and statistics. Drawn from: http://www.point2homes.com/US/Neighborhood/NY/Queens/Astoria-Demographics.html 17 U.S. Census, American Community Survey 18 Citizen’s Committee for Children. http://data.cccnewyork.org/profile/location/3/community- district#48/astoria/3/1205,1206,1207/a/a 19 U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates 20 2015-2016 School Report Cards, found at Data.nysed.gov.
PR/Award # U215J180071 25 Page e45 • 14% of those ages 16-24 are not in school and not working21
Demographics of the target service area indicate that residents are 39% Hispanic, 22%
African-American, 24% White, and 13% Asian. 25% of individuals and 16% of families live in poverty, including 39% of children under 18, 43% of families have rent burdens greater than
30% of their household income. 62% of residents speak a language other than English at home and 27% have difficulty speaking English. 25% have less than a high school education.22
While the building boom in Long Island City and the gentrification of Astoria has brought new stores, restaurants, and bars to the area, the public schools, especially those serving NYCHA
Astoria Houses, continue to struggle. Only 29% of area children show age-appropriate functioning by age five, and English and mathematics proficiency rates start to drop after the 6th grade. Many families have language barriers and other impediments that prevent them from accessing existing supports; local institutions are not doing enough and the non-profit sector is highly fragmented.
Profile of Education Needs: The table below provides data on academic proficiency levels for PS 171Q and IS 126Q, with data drawn from 2016-2017 school report cards.
21 Social Science Research Council: Measure of America. Data2go.NYC 22 U.S. Census, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2011-2015
PR/Award # U215J180071 26 Page e46 School Year 2016-2017
PS 171Q ELA Scores
Grade Level 1 (%) Level 2 (%) Not Meeting Level 3 Level 4 Meeting Below Partially Grade Level (%) (%) Standards Proficient Proficient Proficient Excelling
Grade 37% 35% 72% 23% 5% 28% 3
Grade 41% 41% 82% 12% 5% 17% 4
Grade 62% 31% 93% 7% 0% 7% 5
IS 126Q ELA Scores
Grade 38% 30% 68% 11% 21% 32% 6
Grade 26% 35% 61% 26% 12% 38% 7
Grade 16% 30% 46% 35% 19% 54% 8
PR/Award # U215J180071 27 Page e47
PS 171Q Math Scores
Grade Level 1 (%) Level 2 (%) Not Meeting Level 3 Level 4 Meeting Below Partially Grade Level (%) (%) Standards Proficient Proficient Proficient Excelling
Grade 40% 31% 72% 22% 7% 29% 3
Grade 49% 30% 79% 16% 5% 21% 4
Grade 68% 20% 88% 8% 4% 12% 5
IS 126Q Math Scores
Grade 42% 27% 69% 10% 21% 31% 6
Grade 42% 25% 67% 12% 21% 33% 7
Grade 35% 37% 72% 16% 12% 28% 8
PS 171Q Peter G. Van Alst Elementary School is a NYSED designated Focus School.23 In the SY 2016-17 only 18% of students were proficient in ELA and 21% in Math.24 They compare poorly with Queens overall (42% proficient ELA; 44% Math). The school has a high rate of chronic absenteeism (31%). Demographically, the school is 20% Asian, 49% Hispanic, 27%
African-American, and 4% White.25 With a mobility rate of 14%, enrollment has declined over
23 http://www.p12.nysed.gov/accountability/ESEADesignations.html 24 Weinstein, M., et. al. (2012), Zone 126 Demographic, Education and Health Indicators 2009- 10 Final Report, New York, Institute for Education and Social Policy. 25 Op. cit. NYC DOE School Snapshots
PR/Award # U215J180071 28 Page e48 the last decade as parents seek better schools outside the area. 95% of students are eligible for free and reduced lunch.
IS 126Q Albert Shanker School of Visual and Performing Arts has recently made progress, bringing it out of Focus status in 2017-2018. 31% of students proficient in Math; 41% in English Language Arts. The school has a chronic absenteeism rate of 17% and a suspension rate of 3%. Demographically, 49% of students were Hispanic, 25% Asian, 15% African-
American, and 10% white.26 87% of students were eligible for Free or Reduced Lunch.27
The FSCS project will meet the following key needs for students and families at PS 171Q and IS 126Q:
Identified Need 1: Coordinating services in order to ensure that all children and families are able to access the services they need, are aware of resources in their community, and are able to navigate the logistics involved in meeting their needs. This includes enrichment resources in the community as well as needs related to mental and physical health, legal issues, immigration, housing, etc.
This need will be addressed through the activities of the Community School Director and
Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator, who will coordinate the broad consortium of partners implementing the project as well as building the partnership to include additional partners to meet the needs of students and families. In addition to working with partner organizations to ensure students are registered for programs and activities that meet their needs, the Community
School Director will make and track referrals to organizations such as Optical Academy, the
Child Center of NY’s Mental Health Clinic, and the Floating Hospital to meet health needs.
26 Ibid 27 2015-2016 NYC DOE School Report Cards, found at: https://data.nysed.gov/
PR/Award # U215J180071 29 Page e49 Through parent workshops and other parent engagement activities, the Community Schools
Director will gather information about specific needs of parents and families, following this up with referrals to relevant partners. By convening weekly Neighborhood Community Schools meetings in the school and monthly Community Schools Breakfasts with parents and other stakeholders, the Community School Directors will ensure collaboration and cooperation among partners, coordinating services and ensuring that resources are used efficiently.
Identified Need 2: Support for chronically absent students to re-engage with school. PS
171Q has a chronic absenteeism rate of 31%, while IS 126Q has a rate of 17%. Overall, the attendance rate at PS 171Q is 90.5%, while it is 93.4% at IS 126Q.
This need will be met directly through the activities of the Attendance Success Mentor
Coordinator, who will conduct individual home visits, daily wake-up calls, and create success logs with students and families to ensure students are re-engaging by returning to school. The
Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator will provide mentoring to 20 chronically absent students at each school. He/she will follow an evidence-based process to identify the reasons behind chronic absenteeism, support families in meeting needs that contribute to students not attending school.
Identified Need 3: Preparation for Kindergarten and support for Kindergarteners during their transition to school, in order to ensure that children are prepared to succeed in
Kindergarten. At PS 171Q, approximately 23% of students entering Kindergarten are screened as prepared for Kindergarten. Parents of young children in the service area of PS 171Q and of Pre-
K children at PS 171Q face many issues in helping their children to ensure Kindergarten readiness. These include language barriers, with half of Astoria Houses families not speaking
English at home. The principal reports that children enter school finding difficulty with personal
PR/Award # U215J180071 30 Page e50 interaction and communication skills. The Comprehensive Education Plan for PS 171Q includes goals related to improving classroom conversations, support for English Language Learners, and differentiating instruction in order to address these needs.
The activities targeted to this need include the Parent-Child Home Program, provided by partner organization The Child Center of NY, NYU ParentCorps, Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood
Settlement House After-School Programming, and Little Flower Yoga. The Parent-Child Home
Program and NYU ParentCorps are both evidence-based programs with demonstrated success at improving Kindergarten readiness for children (see Competitive Preference 4 above). The Jacob
A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House After-School program will address this need through after-school services with Kindergarten students at PS 171Q, including academic support, enrichment, physical activity, and relationship building with parents. Little Flower Yoga will be provided to all Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd Grade students at the school, with one yoga session per week for each class during 15 week sessions in each grade. These sessions will support students in learning visualization, self-regulation, self-calming, and self-awareness skills.
Teachers will also be trained in the Little Flower Yoga method, which will enhance the benefits of weekly sessions.
Identified Need 4: Academic enrichment and support to improve academic achievement among students. PS 171Q and IS 126Q both struggle with meeting the academic needs of students. Only 18% of students at PS 171Q and 41% of students at IS 126Q are proficient in
English. Only 21% of students at PS 171Q and 31% of students at IS 126 are proficient in mathematics.
In order to address this need, Zone 126 and partners will provide academic support and enrichment programming both during the school day, after-school, and during the summer
PR/Award # U215J180071 31 Page e51 months. These services, coordinated by the Community Schools Director, provide a pipeline of support for children as they grow from early childhood to adolescence, and address holistic educational needs, including the need for social and emotional learning, the need for high quality enrichment, and the need for individually targeted academic support. Zone 126 and partners will help students improve their academic achievement not by giving them more of what they are already getting in school, but by working in partnership with the school to enrich the learning environment and learning experience for children. School day programming will include drama therapy offered by enACT, yoga and mindfulness offered by Little Flower Yoga (along with teacher professional development), creative writing offered by Community-Word Project
(CWP), and the evidence-based Adolescent Dating Abuse Prevention Curriculum called Safe
Dates offered by the Child Center of NY. Enrichment programming after-school will include
STEM offered by Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House. City Year will provide
Americorps volunteers to work in classrooms and after-school, reaching up to 200 children.
Zone 126 is working with a consortium of partners with a proven track record in success at improving academic and other outcomes. Evaluation results and the evidence base for partners offering programming related to academic success is presented above, under Competitive
Preference Priority 3 and 4.
Identified Need 5: Improvements in school climate and culture in order to ensure that students are safe and healthy. NYC School Survey results for 2016-2017 show that IS 126Q is below the district and city averages in the areas of “collaborative teachers,” “supportive environment,” “strong family-community ties,” and “trust.” This includes being -0.59 below the district average in “supportive environment.” PS 171Q is significantly below the district and
PR/Award # U215J180071 32 Page e52 city average in “rigorous instruction,” “supportive environment,” and “effective school leadership,” and below the district and city average in “strong family-community ties.”
This need is addressed through the work of the Community Schools Staff (Community
School Director and Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator) and through programming offered by partners (this includes, for example, Little Flower Yoga, the Child Center of NY (Safe Dates), and Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House). The Community Schools staff will work with students and family to ensure that barriers to student attendance are addressed, including safety and health concerns. This may mean, for example, bringing together partners to address bullying concerns, organizing vision screenings, and referring children to partners such as the
The Child Center of NY School-Based Mental Health Clinic to address mental health needs. By building strong relationships with teachers and administrators in the school, the Community
Schools Staff will help to engage all stakeholders into consciously creating a positive culture in the school. By teaching social and emotional skills, self-regulation, and self-awareness, Little
Flower Yoga will also address this need, specifically targeting the youngest students in the school to foster development of self-regulation skills that allow them to be ready to learn while at school.
Identified Need 6: Relationship building, outreach, and changes in school culture to ensure parents feel welcomed and empowered to be engaged in their child’s education. Language poses a significant barrier to parent engagement – according to the school principals, parents from the target schools speak as their home language Spanish (60%), Bengali (10%), Arabic
(10%), Urdu (10%), and English (10%). While Zone 126 staff have grown up in the same community and have strong community ties, over half of parents are new to the United States, meaning that new relationships need to be built every year as new children and families move
PR/Award # U215J180071 33 Page e53 into the community. On the Project 126 needs assessment survey, parents indicated that mental health was a major concern from them, including but not limited to experiences of trauma in their country of origin or in the US. Zone 126 staff report that there is often also a cultural barrier to encouraging parent engagement, with parents believing that engagement may be taken as questioning the authority of educators.
As described above, parent engagement is seamlessly embedded into the Zone 126 implementation of the Community Schools Strategy, with all partners contributing to increased parent engagement. Parents will participate in celebrations and presentations of student work, community meals, parent workshops, and home visits. A minimum of eight parent workshops will be offered by enACT, NYU ParentCorps, Jacob A Riis Neighborhood Settlement House,
Urban Upbound, and Zone 126. Both schools will have a fall and spring gathering of parents, students, community members, and elected officials. In the fall, this will include State of the
School address in which the Principals discuss the goals for the school year and the support that is needed, and the plan for reaching those goals. The Principals will also report on progress from the previous year. The spring gathering will also include a report of the previous year and discussion on how to move forward in the following year. By inviting parents to participate in gatherings as equal partners with service providers, faculty and administration, and community leaders and elected officials, Zone 126 will build an expectation that parents are natural partners in the continuous improvement of the Community School. Every time parents participate in activities located at their child’s school, especially when they do so as valued guests and equal participants, it builds their comfort in communicating and engaging with the educators and service providers working with their children. Zone 126 and partners will work every step of the way to build a safe, healthy, and engaged culture for families and students at each target school.
PR/Award # U215J180071 34 Page e54 B. Quality of the Project Services (up to 25 points).
The Secretary considers the quality of the services to be provided by the proposed project. In
determining the quality of project services, the Secretary considers the quality and sufficiency
of strategies for ensuring equal access and treatment for eligible project participants who are
members of groups that have traditionally been underrepresented based on race, color,
national origin, gender, age, or disability.
Zone 126 and its consortium of partners will work with PS 171Q and IS 126Q to create
Full-Service Neighborhood Community Schools that meet the needs of all students, regardless of race, color, national origin, gender, age, disability, religion, or any other characteristic. Zone 126 prides itself on having a diverse staff who are life-long residents of the community in which they serve, and graduates of schools within Community School District #30. The trust Zone 126 staff has developed with the community is an asset when building relationships, including with New
Americans who are still finding their way to participating in civic life and their child’s education.
By building these strong relationships with families in the Zone, the Zone 126 Full-Service
Neighborhood Community Schools staff and partners will ensure that all students and families are included in programming and are welcomed at both the PS 171Q and IS 126Q community schools. All partners also have their own anti-discrimination policies in order to ensure that this culture of inclusion is universally applied in the Community Schools. All partners train their staff in working with children with disabilities, and all partners will ensure that their activities are grounded in universal design for education, so that children with disabilities are able to participate alongside their peers.
PR/Award # U215J180071 35 Page e55 In addition, the Secretary considers the following—
1. The likely impact of the services to be provided by the proposed project on the
intended recipients of those services.
This project will address three key goals and associated performance measures 1) preparedness for kindergarten, 2) academic achievement, and that 3) students are safe, healthy, and supported by engaged parents. The program activities, along with the work the Community
School Directors and the Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator will do to coordinate resources, are directly targeted to these performance measures and to the identified needs of children and families. Zone 126 has brought together a group of 13 partners committed to improving the lives of students at PS 171Q and IS 126Q, who will implement evidence-based programming targeted to identified needs of students, and who will work together and with an external evaluator to continually improve programming. The experience of Zone 126 as a well- connected network hub will further support the impact of the Community Schools efforts at PS
171Q and IS 126Q, because the Community School Directors and Zone 126 will continue to build new partnerships and seek new resources to invest in their community and their children.
This project is grounded in the Children’s Aid Society model of Community Schools, along with that of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. Through ongoing collaboration between the school and community partners, we will ensure that this project meets the necessary conditions laid out in the 2003 Coalition for Community Schools document “Making the Difference:
Research and Practice in Community Schools,” including 1) a high quality core instructional program combining qualified teachers, high standards, and high expectations for youth; 2) students who are motivated to learn; a plan in place to meet the basic physical, mental, and emotional health needs of young people and their families; 3) mutual respect and effective
PR/Award # U215J180071 36 Page e56 collaboration among parents, families, and school staff; and 4) community engagement and school efforts to promote a school environment that is safe, supportive, and respectful. This program is combining the existing, evidence-based academic enrichment programs in the school with the Community School model of child-focused support. Working with the CAS model for staffing, each school will have a full-time Community Schools Director along with a shared
Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator, who will work directly with parents. Community schools with these features have demonstrated benefits among students (gains in academic achievement and in socio-emotional development), families (increased stability, communication with teachers, and school involvement), and in communities (increased security and improved relationships between students and neighborhoods) (Coalition for Community Schools Research
Brief, 2009). Community schools where students receive support that includes case management and access to health care are shown to have impacts on school readiness, attendance, student mobility, parental involvement, access to health care, and community support of the school.28
Using the philosophy of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy29, where staff members will leverage cultural knowledge and practice of students to engage them in their own learning.
Zone 126 will achieve impact related to these three goals through a pipeline of services that supports children from early childhood to the transition to high school, in school and out of school. In order to ensure children are prepared for Kindergarten, Zone 126 and partners will work with children and families, using evidence-based approaches, to support parenting skills that lead to Kindergarten readiness. In order to ensure Kindergarten readiness translates into in- school success. Partners such as Little Flower Yoga will provide in-class support and teacher
28 Dubin, Jennifer (2009) “These Kids are Alright” American Educator V 33, N 2: 8-21. 29 Howard, Tyrone C (2012) “Culturally Responsive Pedagogy” in JA Banks (ed) Engyclopedia of Diversity in Education. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
PR/Award # U215J180071 37 Page e57 professional development related to self-regulation, mindfulness, to academic achievement.
Young children will also participate in high quality after-school programming, with opportunities to participate in additional academic enrichment and to receive academic support as needed. In order to ensure that early academic successes continue as children grow into middle grades and transition to middle school, every grade at both schools will receive at least one push-in service integrating academic enrichment and social and emotional learning, targeting in-school success both directly through enrichment and indirectly through social and emotional learning. These students will continue to have access to out of school time programming and targeted academic support. The emphasis on social and emotional learning will contribute to the safety and health of students, by promoting behavioral health, healthy school culture, and positive decision making among students. The Community School Director, Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator, and
Americorps members will work with children across all grades to ensure that no one falls through the cracks and that in-school supports offered by specialized instructional personnel are coordinated with other available supports, such as mental health clinics. Parent engagement is a goal shared by all partners in this project, meaning that the consortium will work together to create a culture where parents are welcomed and included. The Community School Director will help to coordinate parent engagement efforts in collaboration with the school’s parent coordinator in order to ensure the most effective strategy, and multiple partners will offer workshops to parents on topics of interest to them.
The Community Schools Director will play a key role in situations where the existing
Zone 126 consortium is not able to meet student needs that might present a barrier to achieving impact. Drawing on experience and ties in the community, along with connections Zone 126 is able to link individuals to resource within New York City as a whole and beyond, The
PR/Award # U215J180071 38 Page e58 Community School Director’s role will be to continue, grow, and expand the partnership that serves students at PS 171Q and IS 126Q.
2. The extent to which the services to be provided by the proposed project involve the
collaboration of appropriate partners for maximizing the effectiveness of project
services.
The broad-based consortium implementing this project includes 13 partners, listed in
Table 2 below. These partners have all signed the Memorandum of Understanding and provided letters of support. The partners were chosen because of their proven success in addressing relevant outcomes, their long-standing partnerships with Zone 126, and their work done throughout the Zone over the course of the last seven years with children/youth and families.
The partners listed below will maximize the effectiveness of project services for several reasons. This consortium, many of whom have worked together since the Promise
Neighborhoods planning project of 2012, have experience collaborating to support students and achieve student outcomes. For the past two years, they have worked closely with Zone 126 and
Owen Consulting Inc. to increase their capacity for measuring Collective Impact and working together to implement data-driven decision making. As explained above, this group of partners will together create a seamless pipeline of services that support students from early childhood to and through their transition to high school by supporting and engaging parents, enriching the in- school experience, providing targeted, individual support to meet academic and other needs during and after school, and providing engaging enrichment and academic support services out of school time. In addition to the services listed below and included in each organization’s letter of support, each partner brings to the table their own resources and network of champions for the children of PS 171Q and IS 126Q. Child Center of New York operates a high quality mental
PR/Award # U215J180071 39 Page e59 health clinic, with experience providing mental health care to individuals in this community.
Queens Library (founded 1896) and Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House (founded
1892) are anchor institutions that provide a full array of services to children, youth, and adults, including adult educational opportunities needed by many PS 171Q and IS 126Q families. The
Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens and City Year New York are branches of national non- profits providing activities and services in the target community, meaning that they bring with them the curricular, professional development, and capacity resources of their national umbrella organizations, combined with local expertise and experience. Camp Herrlich, a long-time partner of Zone 126, provides students with the opportunity to experience summer camp in upstate New York (Patterson), reducing the isolation experienced by Astoria Houses residents.
The partners also include smaller organizations (enACT, Community-Word Project, Little
Flower Yoga, Urban Upbound, Optical Academy) whose targeted services and experience in the community make their work highly valuable to implementation of the program. These organizations have clearly focused missions – using drama therapy, creative writing, yoga and mindfulness, self-efficacy and empowerment, and critical vision care – to ensure children and families have the opportunities they need to do and be what they choose. Little Flower Yoga (a social enterprise), Community-Word Project, and enACT will provide in-school programming to students of different ages, working with students to progressively build skills related to self- regulation, self-awareness, and self-expression, integrated with academic enrichment.
The partners in this proposal are not simply a collection of services – they are a group of organizations whose leadership is refusing to give up on the children of Astoria Houses. Zone
126 is convening this consortium to ensure that these children - who are struggling in school, are isolated in their large NYCHA housing developments, and are trying to understand and cope
PR/Award # U215J180071 40 Page e60 with the emotions and trauma they carry - are not forgotten. Through the efforts of these consortium partners, these children and their families are supported and uplifted by adults who care, who have the skills and experience to help them, and who have the resources to do what needs to be done.
Table two is divided by the three program goals, and lists each partner along with what they will be providing to reach that goal.
Table 2
Goal 1 Ensure that students are prepared for Kindergarten
Partner Program Description
The Child Center of Parent-Child Home A home-based program that supports the
NY (CCNY) Program expansion of early literacy skills to build school
Implementation readiness.
Little Flower Yoga Yoga & Yoga and mindfulness for children in the early
(LFY) Mindfulness childhood grades. Children become ready to
Program learn. Parents/teachers gain strategies/supports.
NYU ParentCorps NYU Friends Three key components for the NYU Friends
School School program is social, emotional and
behavioral regulation skills. The Friends School
is a program specifically geared towards
students that are in Pre-K. A 14-week program.
PR/Award # U215J180071 41 Page e61 NYU ParentCorps The Parenting Program is a program for parents
of Pre-K students. 14-week intervention to
enhance the use of evidence-based practices for
promoting social, emotional, and behavioral
regulation skills.
Parent-Child Home Parent-Child Home Provide low-income families with the necessary
Program (PCHP) Program (PCHP) skills and tools to ensure their children achieve
their greatest potential in school and in life.
Build early parent-child verbal interaction and
learning at home.
Queens Library Adult Basic Provide “Learn to Read” programs and classes
Education (ABE) for beginning to mid-level adult readers, offered
approximately 3 hours per class twice a week.
Early Childhood Provide Kick Off To Kindergarten and Ready to
Programming Learn programming for young students.
Family Workshops Provide parents/caregivers learn about nutrition,
speech development, early literacy, and
parenting skills.
High School Provide Pre-HSE classes for adults who speak
Equivalency (HSE) English and want to improve their reading and
math skills in preparation for their HSE exam.
PR/Award # U215J180071 42 Page e62 Classes meet two days per week for a total of 6
hours.
Goal 2 Ensure that students are achieving academically
Partner Program Description
Camp Wilbur Sleepaway Camp Provide enjoyable, safe, quality family camping
Herrlich and environmental education.
The Child Center of Safe Dates Evidence-based curriculum that educates teens
NY (CCNY) about preventing dating violence and safe
relationship building.
City Year New York City Year New Provide schools with a team of diverse and
(CYNY) York talented 18-25 year-olds helping in the school
community through academic and social-
emotional support.
Community-Word School Based Literacy and arts residency inspiring children to
Project (CWP) Literacy & Arts read, interpret, and respond to their world and
Residency become active citizens. enACT Family Workshops Support parents, caregivers and classroom
teachers grades Kindergarten through 8th
behavior management interventions, available in
English and Spanish.
PR/Award # U215J180071 43 Page e63 School Based Pioneer of trauma-informed practices and
Drama Therapy social/emotional learning.
Residency
Advantage Support for afterschool learning through
Jacob A. Riis Afterschool academics, sports, and the arts.
Neighborhood Program
Family Workshops Connect adults in the community to job
opportunities and recognized job training
programs.
Little Flower Yoga Yoga & Yoga and mindfulness for children in Pre-K
(LFY) Mindfulness through 2nd grade. Children become ready to
Program learn. Parents/teachers gain strategies/supports.
NYC DOE OCS New Visions Provide schools with an integrated and cohesive
Attendance Portal experience regarding student attendance,
academics, and programming with the help of a
Strategic Data Facilitator.
Optical Academy Vision Screening School-wide vision screen for all students and
free eyeglasses for all students who need them.
PR/Award # U215J180071 44 Page e64 Salah M. Hassanien Dance Provide a safe, and positive environment for
Variety Boys & Girls Programming children to grow, learn, and have fun through
Club of Queens afterschool and weekend dance classes.
(VBGCQ) Family Workshops Provide a safe, and positive environment for
families to grow, learn, and have fun through
family swim and cooking classes.
Zone 126 Attendance Attendance Mentoring program for students who are
Success Mentoring Mentorship chronically absent.
Goal 3 Ensure that students are safe, healthy, and supported by engaged parents
Partner Program Description
The Child Center of Parent-Child Home A home-based program that supports the
NY (CCNY) Program expansion of early literacy skills to build school
Implementation readiness and early child bonding. enACT Family Workshops Support parents, caregivers and classroom
teachers grades Kindergarten through 8th
through behavior management interventions,
available in English and Spanish.
School Based Pioneer of trauma-informed practices and
Drama Therapy social/emotional learning.
Residency
PR/Award # U215J180071 45 Page e65 Jacob A. Riis Family Workshops Preparing parents to support their children
Neighborhood during their academic journey
Advantage Support for afterschool learning through
Afterschool academics, sports, and the arts.
Program
NYU ParentCorps NYU ParentCorps The Parenting Program is a program for parents
of Pre-K students. 14-week intervention to
enhance the use of evidence-based practices for
promoting social, emotional, and behavioral
regulation skills.
Queens Library Adult Basic Provide “Learn to Read” programs and classes
Education (ABE) for beginning to mid-level adult readers, offered
approximately 3 hours per class twice a week.
Early Childhood Provide Kick Off To Kindergarten and Ready to
Programming Learn programming for young students.
Family Workshops Parents/caregivers learn about nutrition, speech
development, early literacy, and parenting skills.
High School Provide Pre-HSE classes for adults who speak
Equivalency (HSE) English and want to improve their reading and
math skills in preparation for their HSE exam.
PR/Award # U215J180071 46 Page e66 Classes meet two days per week for a total of 6
hours.
Salah M. Hassanien Dance Provide a safe, and positive environment for
Variety Boys & Girls Programming children to grow, learn, and have fun through
Club of Queens afterschool and weekend dance classes.
(VBGCQ) Family Workshops Provide a safe, and positive environment for
families to grow, learn, and have fun through
family swim and cooking classes.
Urban Upbound Adult Employment Help youth and adults gain and retain
Services meaningful employment in high-growth sectors
through job readiness training and one-on-one
counseling.
Financial Provide low-to-moderate income individuals
Counseling and families with a suite of financial services
geared toward achieving financial literacy,
stability, and success.
Tax Preparation Offer free tax preparation assistance to people
who generally make $54,000 or less, persons
with disabilities, seniors and limited English
PR/Award # U215J180071 47 Page e67 speaking taxpayers who need assistance in
preparing their own tax returns.
Zone 126 Attendance Success Mentorship for students who are chronically
Mentoring absent to get on a path to success.
Parent/Family Provide a diversity of workshops to the families
Engagement within 11101, 11102, 11106 regarding financial
Workshops planning, resume building, child development,
school transitions, inclusivity, and mental
health.
C. Adequacy of Resources (up to 15 points).
The Secretary considers the adequacy of resources for the proposed project. In determining
the adequacy of resources for the proposed project, the Secretary considers the following
factors—
1. The relevance and demonstrated commitment of each partner in the proposed project
to the implementation and success of the project;
This project will be implemented by a broad-based consortium of 13 partners and two schools, all of whom have proven success in the community. The grant funds will be used to provide two full-time Community School Directors for each school, a full-time Attendance
Success Mentor Coordinator who will divide their time between the two schools, funding for targeted push-in programming, and the necessary supplies and travel expenses, as well as
PR/Award # U215J180071 48 Page e68 external evaluation. Each partner has committed to provide programming to children and families at the target schools, either through their own independent funding sources or a combination of grant funds and independent funding. Zone 126 will document matching funds from the Elmezzi Foundation (through its funding of Zone 126 directly), from Camp Wilbur
Herrlich, The Child Center of NY, City Year New York, and Optical Academy. However, beyond these matching funds, each partner has committed resources to serving the needs of students, as documented in the attached Letters of Support and MOU.
Every partner listed above signed the MOU for this project along with a Letter of Support explaining their specific contribution to the program. In addition to programs partners have pledged to provide in alignment with the Zone 126 Full-Service Community Schools grant, the following partners have pledged matching funds, as reflected in the attached budget and budget narrative:
• Camp Wilbur Herrlich ($20,000): providing summer camp to 25 students per year
• Child Center of NY ($25,000): providing the Parent-Child Home Program to 15 children,
• City Year New York ($40,000): providing Americorps members to work with up to 200
children and youth in 12 classrooms
• Optical Academy ($10,000): providing vision screening to every child in both schools,
along with a free pair of glasses as needed
• Elmezzi Foundation ($71,000): this funding from the Elmezzi foundation will be used
directly by Zone 126 to support the Full-Service Community Schools program by
enhancing the staffing capacity (.15 FTE Executive Director, .2 FTE an Executive
Administrative Assistant, and .7 FTE Data and Evaluation Manager) as well as providing
funding to enhance programming through direct engagement with parents and youth
PR/Award # U215J180071 49 Page e69 (emergency supplies and other items that are often difficult to fund but critical for
working with vulnerable populations).
2. The extent to which the costs are reasonable in relation to the number of persons to be
served and to the anticipated results and benefits.
Through the Full-Service Community Schools Grant and the resources committed by partners, Zone 126 will serve every child in the two target schools at least once if not more during their academic careers. Several services will be offered in classrooms, to entire grade cohorts of students. A student who attends PS 171Q and then IS 126Q will receive: 4 years of weekly yoga and mindfulness delivered by Little Flower Yoga, three years of creative writing delivered by Community-Word Project, three years of social and emotional learning through creative drama-therapy delivered by enACT, and one year of Adolescent Dating Abuse
Prevention through Safe Dates delivered by The Child Center of NY. These students will also have support from City Year Americorps members for up to 6 years, the opportunity to attend summer programs at Camp Herrlich and/or with Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens, the opportunity to attend high quality after-school programming with Jacob A. Riis Settlement
House for up to six years, and access to yearly vision screenings by Optical Academy. Intensive support for social and emotional learning will contribute to students who are able to self- regulate, to grow past traumas, and who enter classrooms ready to learn. This will start with early programming in yoga and mindfulness, continuing on with engaging programming build on self-expression, creative writing, and drama, and culminate with the Adolescent Dating Abuse
Prevention Curriculum programming aimed at 8th graders about to embark on their journey to high school. This consortium of providers’ support services will contribute to increasing school attendance, making students feel safe at school, and creating a warm and supportive school
PR/Award # U215J180071 50 Page e70 culture. Consistent academic support, offered through City Year Americorps members during and after-school and through Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House after-school programming, will ensure that students have the support they need to achieve academically, and will be accessible to students from Kindergarten through 8th grade. Attendance and academic support, along with other needs that may be negatively impacting school attendance and success, will also be addressed through Success Mentoring and case management provided directly by
Community Schools staff members, and accessible to students in all grades. The consortium of partners providing services share a common vision of parent engagement which is critical for students’ success, and will work together to create synergy through their efforts, offering workshops to parents on topics they request, bringing them into the school for events to celebrate their children and their families, and building relationships that can be leveraged to support the needs of students.
The Full-Service Community Schools grant is key to implementing this array of services, with efficient coordination of resources, staff support to ensure continuous implementation, and supplemental funding for key gaps in existing services. The array of services listed above will be delivered at a cost to the federal government o student per year, per student over five years30.
30 This calculation is based on an award of $500,000 and student populations of 484 at PS 171Q and 700 at IS 126Q, projected for 2018-2019.
PR/Award # U215J180071 51 Page e71 D. Quality of the Management Plan
The Secretary considers the quality of the management plan for the proposed project. In
determining the quality of the management plan for the proposed project, the Secretary
considers the following factors—
1. The adequacy of the management plan to achieve the objectives of the proposed
project on time and within budget, including clearly defined responsibilities, timelines,
and milestones for accomplishing project tasks.
The management plan for implementing this project includes staff hired directly by Zone
126 and the participation and ongoing collaboration with leadership and line staff from all partners serving students in the Community School. Zone 126 will begin in October 2018 with three months of planning activities (with a cost of 3.5% of the first year’s budget), or as soon as the grant is awarded, by convening all Community Schools Partners, including school administrators, to discuss roles and responsibilities, review and coordinate schedules, identify potential areas of overlap, synergy, and gaps in programming, plan future Community Schools meetings, identify professional development needs, and build relationships among partners. This convening will be led by the Community Schools Director. The Community Schools Director and Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator will meet weekly with the Principals and Assistant
Principals at each school, in order to discuss student attendance, implementation progress, and potential new areas of need. Implementation Partners at the school will meet monthly to track progress towards implementation and outcome goals, to discuss challenges and successes, and to continue to build a collaborative culture. There will also be monthly Principal’s breakfasts during which parents and students will be invited to share information and input for their school.
PR/Award # U215J180071 52 Page e72 Each school will have a full-time Community School Director who will be responsible for coordinating services, managing partnerships, providing direct support to students, and planning for program sustainability. As a key component of the Community School strategy, having a full- time Community School Director for each school will ensure there is one individual who understands all of the services being offered at each school, and who has relationships with all important stakeholders in order to facilitate partnership building and collaboration. Because of the level of need in the target schools, the Community School Director will work with a team to ensure students receive adequate support. A full-time Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator will serve both schools, with their time and caseload of 40 students divided evenly between the schools. The Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator will provide intensive support to students who are chronically absent. The team of Community Schools Director, Attendance Success
Mentor Coordinator, City Year Americorps members, and specialized instructional staff at the school will ensure that all children needing individualized support will have it.
The Community Schools Staff, the Community Schools Director and Attendance Success
Mentor Coordinator, will be supervised by the Managing Director, Anju J. Rupchandani, who has worked with Zone 126 since its formation in 2011. She has served as the Director of
Community Engagement, Vice President of Collective Impact Partnerships, and Interim
Executive Director. Ms. Rupchandani has previous experience over the course of the last two decades in being a Community School Director herself, and running as well as developing Out- of-School Time programming specific to high-needs public schools. She will meet with the
Community School Directors of both of these schools individually once a week, and collectively along with the Community School Director at Long Island City High School twice a month, to coordinate and oversee the cradle-to-college-career pipeline being implemented in the Zone. She
PR/Award # U215J180071 53 Page e73 will also manage and coordinate professional development, and oversee partnerships, including managing accountability among partners, participating in stakeholder meetings, and supporting the Community School Directors in securing new partnerships as needed. Ms. Rupchandani will be supported by an Executive Administrative Assistant and Data and Evaluation Associate, who will both provide their time as in-kind matching funds for the grant.
Ms. Rupchandani will be supervised by Executive Director Anthony Lopez, who will provide his time as an in kind match. Executive Director, Anthony Lopez leads the Leadership
Team, bringing 30 years of non-profit leadership experience. Mr. Lopez sociological perspective enables him to see society as a temporary social product, created by human beings and capable of being changed by them as well. Initially as a leader of a national demonstration project called
Career Beginnings Mentoring, Mr. Lopez grew the I Have A Dream Foundation’s national network, and became its first NYC-affiliated Executive Director. He also served at ED for
ASPIRA of NY. Both experiences resulted in $16M private and public funds raised, changing educational policies in bilingual education, and growing NYC’s charter school movement by adding 25 charter schools, including co-founding the Bronx’s first community grown charter high school. He has served as a collaborator, thought partner and facilitator to numerous policy makers and elected officials on school reform related to Career and Technical Education, Charter
Schools and K-12 educational pipelines. In 2007, he founded the Aprendes Foundation to support community-grown solutions.
The two tables below present a timeline for implementation of the project (Table 4) and a breakdown of the roles and responsibilities for each member of the Community Schools team
(Table 5).
PR/Award # U215J180071 54 Page e74 Table 4: Timeline
Time Milestones
Oct 2018-Jan 2019 Zone 126 will convene the consortium of partners
implementing the Community Schools strategy, including
representatives from the target school. Partners will review
implementation and data collection milestones, identify
potential barriers to implementation, and develop strategies to
address those barriers. Planning will focus on integrating new
services with existing services in the school, building strong
collaborative relationships, identifying professional
development needs, and creating a shared Community Schools
culture. Partners will also provide input into the evaluation
design, including identifying items of interest on the NYC
Schools Survey and identifying questions of interest for
stakeholder focus groups. During this time, existing activities
will continue. Zone 126 will hire Community School Directors
and Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator, including
consideration of internal candidates. The Community School
Director will be selected by a hiring committee including
stakeholders from the school, in order to ensure a good match.
Jan 2019-June 2019 Implementation of new activities begins, including Little
Flower Yoga, Optical Academy. Community School Director
and the Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator will work with
PR/Award # U215J180071 55 Page e75 children and families to provide case management, Success
Mentoring, and to facilitate communication with other
stakeholders.
June 2019-August 2019 Students will attend summer programming at Camp Herrlich
and Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens. Partners will
convene to identify successes and challenges in Year 1 of
implementation, to discuss Year 1 preliminary evaluation
results, and to plan for Year 2. Partners will identify gaps in
programming so that the Community Schools Directors may
focus partnership building efforts in Year 2.
September 2019-June 2020 Partners and Community Schools staff will work with children
(Year 2) and families during in-school and out-of-school time. Programs
in classrooms and out of school will be implemented.
Community Schools Director and the Attendance Success
Mentor Coordinator will continue to work with children and
families to provide case management, Success Mentoring, and
to facilitate communication with other stakeholders.
Community School Directors will build partnerships as
identified during summer planning. Evaluation data collection
and analysis will continue, with mid-year reporting to be
delivered in January.
June 2020-August 2020 Students will attend summer programming at Camp Herrlich
and Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens. Partners will
PR/Award # U215J180071 56 Page e76 convene to discuss ongoing implementation successes and
challenges. Evaluation results will be discussed in order to
identify any needed course corrections for Year 3. Partners will
identify Year 3 goals, which may include building additional
partnerships.
September 2020-June 2021 Partners and Community Schools staff will work with children
(Year 3) and families during in-school and out-of-school time,
Community School Directors and the Attendance Success
Mentor Coordinator will continue to work with children and
families to provide case management, Success Mentoring, and
to facilitate communication with other stakeholders.
Community School Directors will build partnerships as
identified during summer planning. Evaluation, data collection,
and analysis will continue, with mid-year reporting to be
delivered in January.
June 2021-August 2021 Students will attend summer programming at Camp Herrlich
and Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens. Partners will
convene to discuss ongoing implementation successes and
challenges. Evaluation results will be discussed in order to
identify any needed course corrections for Year 4. Partners will
identify Year 4 goals, which will include sustainability planning
and may include building additional partnerships.
PR/Award # U215J180071 57 Page e77 September 2021-June 2022 Partners and Community Schools staff will work with children
(Year 4) and families during school and out of school time,
Community Schools Director and Success Mentor Coordinator
will continue to work with children and families to provide case
management, Success Mentoring, and to facilitate
communication with other stakeholders. Community Schools
Director will build partnerships as identified during summer
planning. Evaluation data collection and analysis will continue,
with mid-year reporting to be delivered in January. The
Community Schools Directors will work with partner
organizations to develop sustainability plan for the Community
Schools Strategy at each school.
June 2022-August 2022 Students will attend summer programming at Camp Herrlich
and Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens. Partners will
convene to discuss ongoing implementation successes and
challenges. The sustainability plan will be discussed, including
progress towards meeting sustainability goals. Evaluation
results will be discussed in order to identify any needed course
corrections for Year 5. Partners will identify Year 5 goals, with
an emphasis on sustainability.
September 2022-June 2023 Partners and Community Schools staff will work with children
(Year 5) and families during in-school and out-of-school time,
Community School Directors and Success Mentor Coordinator
PR/Award # U215J180071 58 Page e78 will continue to work with children and families to provide case
management, Success Mentoring, and to facilitate
communication with other stakeholders. Community School
Directors will build partnerships as identified during summer
planning. Evaluation data collection and analysis will continue,
with mid-year report delivered in January. The Community
School Directors will work with all stakeholders to implement
the sustainability plan and ensure sustainability of the
Community Schools Strategy at each school.
Table 5: Roles and Responsibilities: Zone 126 Full-Service Community Schools
Title Roles and Responsibilities
Community School Directors Coordinate resources within each school, build new
partnerships, sustainability planning, lead continuous quality
improvement process, provide support to students as needed,
including referrals to outside resources as needed.
Success Mentor Coordinator Providing Attendance Success Mentor to a targeted group of
20 chronically absent students at each school, collaborate with
Community School Directors, school representatives, and
partners to ensure student needs are being met.
PR/Award # U215J180071 59 Page e79 Lead Representatives for Collaborate with Zone 126 around evaluation/continuous
Partner Organizations quality improvement and sustainability planning, supervise
staff delivering programming in each school.
Partner Organization Line Implement high quality programming in-school and out-of-
Staff school, participate in evaluation and planning efforts to ensure
continuous quality improvement.
School Administration Collaborate with Community Schools staff and partners to
(Principal, Assistant ensure all programming is implemented as planned, including
Principal, Guidance support for relationship building with teachers; collaborate
Counselors, and Parent around evaluation, continuous quality improvement, and
Coordinators) sustainability efforts; provide access to school space and
resources needed to implement activities.
Principal Investigator (Dave Oversee implementation of evaluation, cooperate with national
Owen, M.Ed.) evaluator, providing ongoing technical assistance to Zone 126
and partners, analyze and report on evaluation data.
Evaluation Support Support PI in collecting and analyzing data.
Personnel (Jimmy Jung,
PhD.
Managing Director (Anju J Supervise Community Schools staff and provide support in
Rupchandani) partnership building, continuous quality improvement, and
sustainability planning; ensure adequate professional
development and capacity building for staff; interface with
Federal Government as Project Director.
PR/Award # U215J180071 60 Page e80 Executive Director (Anthony Ensure successful implementation of project through high
Lopez) level supervision, partnership building, sustainability planning,
and capacity building.
Executive Administrative Provide support to Executive Director, Managing Director, and
Assistant (Rebecca Lee) Data and Evaluation Associate, especially around issues of
compliance, reporting requirements, and other administrative
matters.
Data and Evaluation Provide support to Managing Director through data
Associate management, collaboration with the external evaluator, and
support for Continuous Quality Improvement.
2. The extent to which the time commitments of the project director and principal
investigator and other key project personnel are appropriate and adequate to meet the
objectives of the proposed project.
The Project Director, Anju J. Rupchandani, will devote 35% of her time to this grant project. This will allow her to work with the external evaluator, interface with the Federal government, attend all required meetings, supervise program staff, and support partnership building. Ms. Rupchandani’s work will be supported by the Executive Director (15% FTE as an in-kind match), Executive Administrative Assistant (20% as an in-kind match), and Data and
Evaluation Associate (70% as an in-kind match). Additionally, the grant will fund two
Community School Directors, one for each school, and one Attendance Success Mentor
Coordinator, who will serve both schools. The Community School Directors will manage and
PR/Award # U215J180071 61 Page e81 oversee day-to-day operation of the individual Community Schools, including working with partners, collecting and maintaining data systems, building new partnerships, and building relationships with children/youth, families, and school stakeholders. In order to support relationships building with students, one Attendance Success Mentor Coordinator will work at both schools, spending half their time at each school. They will carry a caseload of 20 chronically absent students, with whom they will work closely to provide mentoring and support.
The Principal Investigator for the evaluation of this project has allocated 350 hours per year to the evaluation. David Owen, M.Ed. of Owen Consulting Inc. will serve as PI, supported by Research Associate Jimmy Jung, PhD. This will include enough time to collect and analyze data, provide ongoing technical assistance, and facilitate continuous quality improvement with
Community Schools Stakeholders.
E. Quality of the Project Evaluation
The Secretary considers the quality of the evaluation to be conducted of the proposed project.
In determining the quality of the evaluation, the Secretary considers the following factors—
1. The extent to which the methods of evaluation are thorough, feasible, and appropriate to
the goals, objectives, and outcomes of the proposed project.
The evaluation will be conducted by a third-party, NYC-based evaluation firm, Owen
Consulting Inc. (OCI). Owen Consulting has been supporting Zone 126’s evaluation efforts towards measuring collective impact across programs and community school partners since
2016. Founded in 1999 and staffed by a team of expert consultants with advanced degrees in
Education, Psychology, Economic Development, and Psychometrics, the firm has extensive experience in designing and conducting mixed-method, robust, single and multi-year evaluations of organizations, programs, and schools working to positively impact NYC Public school
PR/Award # U215J180071 62 Page e82 students’ positive youth development, social emotional learning (SEL), and academic achievement.
OCI will work with Zone 126 to implement a mixed-methods evaluation plan to collect data on all relevant goals, objectives, and outcomes, as discussed in Section a1 above. OCI will complete a quasi-experimental study using regression analysis and other statistical techniques
(difference of means, factor analysis, etc.) to assess the impact of the Zone 126 implementation of Community Schools compared to a comparison group.
Goal 1: Students are Prepared for Kindergarten. The objective in this goal is that a larger percentage of children enter kindergarten “prepared for kindergarten,” as measured through changes in the Pre-Kindergarten readiness screenings administered by PS 171Q. OCI and Zone
126 will work with PS 171Q to collect this data at a group level each year of the grant. Pre-
Kindergarten screenings are conducted each year as children enter school, making this data readily available.
Goal 2: Students are achieving academically. OCI will track progress towards the objective that fewer students are chronically absent, a greater percentage of students receive satisfactory classroom grades, and a greater percentage of students perform at grade level / score proficient on state assessments tests. School attendance by grade level will be collected each week from publicly available NYC DOE data, with a lag of one week. Chronic absenteeism will be tracked monthly, with data provided by Zone 126 and the school, and will be compared to baseline time trends (i.e. by month) and to comparison schools for the year total. Data on individual level attendance, grades, and state test scores, will be obtained through a formal data request to the NYCDOE Research and Policy Support Group (RPSG) in the fall of each school year. OCI will also request data on at least three other peer schools, to be identified by
PR/Award # U215J180071 63 Page e83 comparing a set of criteria expected to include similar geographic area, student demographic makeup, enrollment figures, NYC School survey results, and academic performance, among others. Using a quasi-experimental design, the OCI team will then conduct regression analysis to look for differences in academic outcomes between Zone 126 students and comparison cohorts, a common statistical method used to study impacts on school outcomes (Grogan, Henrich, &
Malikina, 2014; Leos-Urbel, 2015). The regression analysis will enable OCI to hold other variables constant while examining the impact of Zone 126 Full-Service Neighborhood
Community Schools on students’ academic achievement.
Goal 3: Students are safe, healthy, and supported by engaged parents. OCI will track progress towards the following objectives: improvements in items related to safety, health, and parent engagement on the NYC school survey; increased access to health services (as measured through referrals to service providers); increased parent participation in Community School events; and improvements in parent satisfaction and engagement as measured on a Zone 126
Parent Survey. The data sources involved in tracking progress towards these objectives are as follows: NYC School Survey for PS 171Q, IS 126Q, and a group of peer schools (publicly available); referrals provided by Community Schools Staff (provided in de-identified form weekly by community schools staff), and a Parent Survey administered to parents twice per year.
Thus, evaluation of progress towards this goal and its related objectives will use a combination of publicly available data, administrative data, and a survey administered by OCI and Zone 126 staff. During the first year of the grant program, OCI will work with Community Schools stakeholders to create appropriate indices of items from the NYC School Survey, and will use this publicly-available data source from each target school and peer schools to track changes in this index over time. Community Schools Staff will be tracking referrals made to health
PR/Award # U215J180071 64 Page e84 providers as part of the documentation of their work, and Zone 126 and school staff will provide student data to OCI on a weekly basis through secure online file sharing. Collecting the data weekly will allow for time trend analysis – for example, comparing the week before Christmas
2019 to the week before Christmas 2020 – rather than simply taking averages and losing the time series variation within the data set. Lastly, OCI will complete a survey with parents twice a year, looking for changes in response rate, completion rate, and in survey results. This survey will assess engagement with school, comfort with school, and satisfaction with the Community
Schools. It will also provide an opportunity for parents to provide input into the Community
Schools, through open-ended and close-ended questions. The survey will be conducted by Zone
126 staff at parent engagement activities, and will be available in paper and electronic format.
The survey will also be translated into Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, and Urdu to ensure that language barriers to not keep parents from participating.
The evaluation will, whenever possible, use publicly available data sources. This choice is important for the feasibility of the evaluation, in order to ensure OCI has data on every student in the school. The Community School effort is a whole-school model. Therefore, all students will participate in Community School programming at least once during their time at the school if not once or more each year, and a substantial amount of work is happening in the classroom through push-in services, it is important to assess the impact of the project on the school climate and culture overall. As there are already school-wide data collection efforts underway in NYC, especially the NYC School Survey, using this survey will ensure a sufficiently high response rate for analysis and will allow for the most efficient use of evaluation resources. Likewise, collecting de-identified data on grades and test scores will allow OCI to analyze academic data
PR/Award # U215J180071 65 Page e85 for the entire school, disaggregating by groups such as grade level, and demographic characteristics.
2. The extent to which the methods of evaluation include the use of objective performance
measures that are clearly related to the intended outcomes of the project and will
produce quantitative and qualitative data to the extent possible.
The section below presents the objective performance measures that will be collected to assess progress towards implementation and impact goals. These measures were chosen because of their direct relationship to the program goals and the feasibility of collecting the data school- wide. For each goal, OCI will also collect qualitative data that will support in rich analysis grounded in the experiences of stakeholders in the community schools.
OCI will provide two reports each year, at the mid-point and the end of the academic year.
These reports will include analysis for the current year and longitudinal analysis looking back to baseline data. OCI will meet twice annually with stakeholders, at the beginning of each school year and at the mid-point, to review progress towards implementation and impact goals.
In addition to the data discussed above, the Community School Directors will be able to have access and use the New Visions Data Portal, inclusive of an attendance heat map provided by the NYC DOE Office of Community Schools, as part of the Zone 126 partnership with NYC
DOE. The New Visions Data Portal is a powerful tool to track progress of individual students, log program participation, as well as analyze trends among groups of students who share specific characteristics, such as demographic categories, levels of attendance, and academic performance.
OCI will provide technical assistance in the form of three coaching sessions with the Community
School Directors, along with prepared formulas and filtering protocols, in order to build the Zone
PR/Award # U215J180071 66 Page e86 126 capacity to use this tool for ongoing Continuous Quality Improvement in the Community
Schools efforts.
Goals, Objectives, Outcome Performance Measures, and Qualitative data:
Impact Goal 1: Students are prepared for kindergarten
Objective:
- Compared to baseline, more students enter Kindergarten screened as prepared for
Kindergarten, as measured on the annual Pre-Kindergarten screening tool used by PS
171Q.
Targeted Outcomes:
- In Year 2, at least 30% of students will be assessed as entering prepared for
Kindergarten. In Year 3, at least 35% will be assessed as entering prepared for
Kindergarten. By Year 4, at least 40% will be assessed as entering prepared for
Kindergarten. By Year 5, at least 45% will be assessed as entering prepared for
Kindergarten, meaning an improvement of 22 percentage points above baseline overall.
Qualitative Data: Program observations
Impact Goal 2: Students are achieving academically
Objectives:
- Students attend school more frequently, resulting in fewer chronically absent students.
- Students improve in their classroom grades and in their performance on standardized tests
PR/Award # U215J180071 67 Page e87 Targeted Outcomes:
- In Year 1, the rate of chronic absenteeism (when averaged across the school year) will
decrease by 2% compared to baseline. It will be 4% below baseline in Year 2, 6% below
baseline in Year 3, 8% below baseline in Year 4, and 8% below baseline in Year 5.
- In Year 1, the percentage of students, averaged for all grades, receiving satisfactory level
grades in two or more subjects in the 4th quarter will improve at least 5% over baseline.
By Year 2, the percentage of students, averaged for all grades, receiving satisfactory level
grades in two or more subjects in the 4th quarter will show an improvement of 7% over
baseline, and will show a statistically significant difference from the comparison group of
schools. In Years 3-5, the change in grades will show a statistically significant difference
from the comparison group of schools, and will show percentage increases over baseline
as follows: 9% in Year 3, 11% in Year 4, and 13% in Year 5.
- Tests: In Year 1, the percentage of students, averaged for all grades, performing as on
grade level on at least one of the two primary state assessments (ELA and Math) will
increase 3% over baseline. In Years 2 – 5, this increase will show statistically significant
differences with comparison schools, with targeted changes of 6% over baseline in Year 2,
9% over baseline in Year 3, 12% over baseline in Year 4, and 15% over baseline in Year
5.
Qualitative Data: Program Observations
Impact Goal 3: Students are safe, healthy, and supported by engaged parents
Objectives:
PR/Award # U215J180071 68 Page e88 - Improvements in items related to safety, health, and parent engagement on the NYC
school survey; increased access to health services (as measured through referrals to
service providers)
- Increased parent participation in Community School events
- and Improvements in parent satisfaction and engagement as measured on a Zone 126
Parent Survey.
Targeted Outcomes:
- In Year 1, the overall index score for each sub-index will improve by at least 5% over
baseline. In Years 2 through 5, the changes in index scores for each sub-index will show
a difference of at least 3 percentage points compared to the group of comparison schools,
and will improve by 10% in Year 2, 15% in Year 3, 20% in Year 4 and 25% in Year 5.
- Health: The targeted outcomes are as follows: by Year 2 the average number of referrals
(covering the entire time trend of the year) will be 2% higher than the time trend average
for Year 1. The time trend average will be 4% higher by Year 3, 6% higher by Year 4,
and 8% higher by Year 5.
- Engagement (participation): By Year 2, average parent attendance at events will increase
by 5%. By Year 3, average parent attendance will increase by 10% over baseline. By
Year 4, average parent attendance will increase by 15% over baseline. By Year 5,
average parent attendance will increase by 20% over baseline.
- Parent satisfaction and engagement: The percentage of parents indicating positive or
strongly positive responses on at least one of the satisfaction and engagement indices will
increase by 1% each year, with an increase of 5% over baseline by Year 5.
Qualitative Data: Program observations, interviews and focus groups with stakeholders
PR/Award # U215J180071 69 Page e89
Implementation Goals:
Service Expansion Implementation Goal: Increasing the accessibility of services in the community
Objective:
- The number of children and families connected to PS 171Q and IS 126Q who are
receiving services will increase
Targeted Outcome:
- The number of children and families receiving services will increase by 255 (22%) in
Year 1 and by an additional 74 children (6%) each year after.
Fidelity Implementation Goal: Activities are implemented as outlined in this grant application.
Objectives:
- The proposed activities occur with the frequency and service totals as proposed in this
grant application.
Measurement: Attendance data for staff and participants that reflects consistent implementation of activities
Qualitative Data: Program observations, analysis of program documents (schedules, lesson plans, curriculum materials)
Fidelity Implementation Goal: Community Schools Staff are providing services as outlined in this grant application
Objective:
PR/Award # U215J180071 70 Page e90 - The Community Schools Director, Attendance Success Mentoring Coordinator, and
Americorps members have consistent contact with the expected number of students
- Referrals to services are provided consistently throughout the year and increase each
year, when analyzed as a time trend
- Families indicate satisfaction with Community Schools Services on relevant survey
items, with satisfaction increasing each year over baseline.
Measurement: Records of student contacts, records of referrals, family surveys conducted twice per year
Qualitative Data: De-identified notes on student contacts and referrals, interviews with staff members
Fidelity Implementation Goal: Community Schools strategy is implemented with fidelity regarding partnership building, collaboration, sustainability planning, and comprehensiveness
Objective:
- Implementation of the Community Schools Strategy includes concrete evidence of
participation of partners in planning, sustainability planning, and coordinating services
- The partnership for PS 171Q and IS 126Q expands to include new partners.
- At least some elements of the Community Schools strategy as outlined in this grant are
sustained past the end of the grant period.
Measurement (Qualitative): Minutes, action plans, and follow ups from semi-annual
planning meetings, administrative documents, such as partnership agreements, sustainability
plans, outreach documents, interviews with staff members and other stakeholders.
PR/Award # U215J180071 71 Page e91 Application Requirements:
(a) A description of the eligible entity
This application is being submitted by a consortium including at one LEA (Community
School District 30 in NYC), two eligible schools, a community-based organization, and multiple
other partners. Community School District 30 serves the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, with
PS 171Q and IS 126Q serving mainly children and families from NYCHA Astoria Houses. Most
PS 171Q students go on to attend IS 126Q. Zone 126 has served as a backbone organization
coordinating and enhancing services in this community since its inception in 2011, and will
leverage the FSCS grant to implement a community-wide Neighborhood Community School
strategy with PS 171Q and IS 126Q (funded through FSCS) along with the school where most IS
126Q children attend high school, Long Island City (with NYC DOE funding). A full
description of this eligible entity is included in the application narrative above.
(b) A memorandum of understanding among all partner entities in the eligible entity that will assist
the eligible entity to coordinate and provide pipeline services and that describes the roles the
partner entities will assume.
The Memorandum of Understanding has been attached as Appendix A
(c) A description of the capacity of the eligible entity to coordinate and provide pipeline
services at two or more full- service community schools.
Since Zone 126 was created in 2011, Zone 126 and partners have served more than 7,000
children living in the Zone, along with their families. Zone 126, in partnership with CSD 30 and
other partners, has the capacity to implement this project. This capacity is evidenced through
their long standing partnership to serve children and families in the Zone (described in more
detail above) and their documented success at achieving outcomes with children in this
PR/Award # U215J180071 72 Page e92 community (described under Competitive Preference Priorities 3 and 4). Zone 126 is also the
lead agent for community school Long Island City High School, where in the last three years of
community schools work, attendance has increased by 6 percentage points and the graduation
rate has increased by 9 percentage points.
(d) A comprehensive plan that includes descriptions of the following:
The student, family, and school community to be served, including demographic information.
This information is detailed in the Quality of the Project Design section, above, and is aligned
with the Comprehensive Education Plan for each school.
(e) A needs assessment that identifies the academic, physical, nonacademic, health, mental
health, and other needs of students, families, and community residents.
Our needs assessment data and findings are detailed in this proposal under the Quality of
Project Services. Information was drawn from the Promise Neighborhoods needs assessment
completed by Zone 126, input provided by leaders participating in Zone 126 affinity groups,
and from each school’s Comprehensive Education Plan.
(i) Annual measurable performance objectives and outcomes, including an increase in the
number and percentage of families and students targeted for services each year of the program,
in order to ensure that children are—
• A Prepared for kindergarten;
• B Achieving academically; and
• C Safe, healthy, and supported by engaged parents.
This information is provided in the Quality of Project Design section and the Evaluation section
of the proposal.
PR/Award # U215J180071 73 Page e93 (ii) Pipeline services, including existing and additional pipeline services, to be coordinated and provided by the eligible entity and its partner entities, including an explanation of—
- A Why such services have been selected;
- B How such services will improve student academic achievement; and
- C How such services will address the annual measurable performance objectives and outcomes described above.
This information is provided in the Quality of Project Services Section
(iii) Plans to ensure that each full- service community school site has a full-time coordinator of pipeline services at such school, including a description of the applicable funding sources, plans for professional development for the personnel managing, coordinating, or delivering pipeline services, and plans for joint utilization and management of school facilities.
This information is provided in the budget narrative. Each school site will have one full-time
Community Schools Director.
(iv) Plans for annual evaluation based upon attainment of the performance objectives and outcomes described above.
This information is provided in the evaluation plan section.
(v) Plans for sustaining the programs and services described in the application after the grant period.
This information is provided in the Adequacy of Resources and Management Plan sections.
(f) An assurance that the eligible entity and its partner entities will focus services on schools eligible for a school wide program under section 1114(b) of the ESEA.
PR/Award # U215J180071 74 Page e94 This statement serves as an assurance that the Zone 126 and our partner entities will focus services on schools eligible for a schoolwide program under section 1114(b) of the ESEA. All target schools are eligible for a schoolwide Title 1 program.
PR/Award # U215J180071 75 Page e95